Tekong Brickworks

While exploring Bukit Brown Block 4 Section C recently, i came across  a tomb with headstone that has fallen and bricks in disarray. It caught my eye because one as the word Tekong etched on it. I have seen bricks with Alexandra or A.B.W etched on it, but i actually came across only very few with Tekong in Bukit Brown. 

Tekong Brick 

Some information about the Pulo Tekong Bricks

A report of the Government Commission that i read on 30 August 1918 mentioned that the important brick fields which supply Singapore are;

1. Alexandra Brickworks (output of 7.5 million per annum)
2. Tekong Brickwords (output of 3 million per annum)
3. Batam Brickworks (output of 3.5 million per annum)

The Johore Government is a large buyer of bricks in Singapore. In 1918, it purchase from Alexandra Brickwork 2.5 million of its bricks amounting to 1/3 of its output. With plans for the new railway station and public housing, it was reported that the current output is insufficient to meet future demand. 

In 1919 it was reported in the Malaya Tribune that Tan Kah Kee & Co ( 1 River Valley Road, Singapore) has purchased the business known as Pulo Tekong Brickworks and Rubber Estate. Who did he buy it from ? I suspect he bought it from Chew Boon Lay ! In an oral interview with Victor Chew Chin Aik (grandson of Chew Boon Lay) in 29 October 1997, it was said that Chew Boon Lay started a brick-making factory in Pulau Tekong  around 1912, but because of high fatality rate among his workers there, he decided to sell it rather than commit more workers to their deaths.

The machine pressed bricks of Tekong was advertised by Tan Kah Kee & Co. in 1921 and post war Oct 1945, Tan Kah Kee sought assistance from the British Military Administration via the Chinese Affairs Department for timber supplies as fuel to restart the Brick Kiln. 

Purchase of Pulo Tekong Brickworks by Tan Kah Kee & Co.
(source: NewspaperSG)

Pulo Tekong Bricks of Tan Kah Kee & Co.
(source: NewspaperSG)

 In an oral interview with Victor Chew Chin Aik (grandson of Chew Boon Lay, it was said that Chew Boon Lay started a brick-making factory in Pulau Tekong  around 1912, but because of high fatality rate among his workers there, he decided to sell it rather than commit more workers to their deaths.

Tekong Brick on a tomb in Block 4 Section C

Read also

Bin Keow Brickworks. (website). Rojak Librarian, posted on 8 June 2023

Batam Brick Works. (website). Rojak Librarian, posted on 1 February 2018

Wee Thaim Ghee (Bukit Brown). (website). Rojak Librarian, posted on 6 November 2013

Yong Seng Limited Brickworks. (website). Rojak Librarian, posted on 28 May 2023